For over 30 years, Lucy has been held captive in a small zoo enclosure in frigid Edmonton, Alberta, and for more than three years, she’s been without the companionship of other elephants.

Lucy’s life at the Edmonton Valley Zoo—which was identified by elephant biologist Winnie Kiiru as the worst zoo in Canada for elephants—is a miserable contrast to what she would experience in the wild. Female elephants are highly social and suffer greatly when kept in isolation. Edmonton’s freezing winter weather and the zoo’s policy of locking Lucy indoors during the winter and when the zoo is closed means that Lucy spends the majority of her time in a small barn. When she is allowed outside, she is restricted to an enclosure that is less than an acre in size.

Lucy exhibits signs of mental distress and has health issues—including upper respiratory problems, arthritis, obesity, and chronic foot ailments—as a result of the substandard and inadequate conditions at the Edmonton Valley Zoo. These health problems are further aggravated by the region’s frigid climate.

The city of Toronto recently agreed to release the elephants at its city zoo to a sanctuary by the end of 2012 and also formally urged Edmonton to do the same with Lucy. This is a huge step forward, and it’s time for Edmonton to follow Toronto’s example!

The only way to ensure that Lucy’s suffering doesn’t continue—and that her health conditions don’t eventually kill her—is to transfer her to a sanctuary. The Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California can offer Lucy ponds for bathing, fresh vegetation and foraging opportunities, the freedom to roam over many acres of natural habitat, and the company of other elephants.

I urge you and the Edmonton City Council to do whatever is necessary to get Lucy relocated to a sanctuary and to close the zoo’s elephant exhibit permanently.

HATTIESBURG, MS – A University of Southern Mississippi research
laboratory is apparently allowing ticks to feast on rabbits and hamsters
The horrific research has led to gruesome conditions where test
subjects are so infested they are being eaten alive, according to a
horrific report obtained by a national research watchdog organization.

A recently obtained federal report discloses that holes were eaten in
animals' ears, they bled from the rectum and eventually had to be
euthanized – leading to multiple federal violations, charged Ohio-based
SAEN, which has filed an official complaint with the USDA requesting a full federal investigation.

A scathing, four-page September, 2012, USDA inspection report reveals
multiple federal infractions at USM. The facility is cited repeatedly
for inadequate supervision of an experiment that literally feeds rabbits
and hamsters to colonies of ticks. The animals have been so
consumed by the ticks that they developed holes in their ears, bled from
the rectum, and required euthanasia.

One animal is described:
"...Rabbit 60RBJT was used to feed Ablyomma maculatum for 13 days...
Lab staff noted that there was a tremendous damage to the animal's ears.
At end of feeding on 2/6 animal has large holes in the ears, ear color
was blue, and there was tip necrosis noted on 2/3. On 1/30/12 the animal
was noted to be bleeding from the rectum.”

The inspection
report indicates that USM administration suggested it knew about the
employee, noting that: “Attempts to address this situation appeared to
be unsuccessful based on facility documentation.”

Cordoba, Spain. If the City Council does not keep its commitment , demolition of the Hostel Association will start in March 2013. All the animals will be strays again or kept in kill shelters. It would mean the cessation of the altruistic work of the Association.

File criminal charges against SENAD Husejnovic, he created a website called "Sarajevo fleecer" which offers free liquidation of dogs on the streets of Sarajevo, prepares to commit many crimes of murder and torture of animals, which is criminalized by Article 318 criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.